DRAPERY CARRIER FOR MAINTAINING DRAPERY HEADING IN UPRIGHT POSITION

3 6 0 9 , 7 9 5 Utiited States Patent Office 3,609,795 DRAPERY CARRIER FOR MAINTAINING DRAPERY HEADING IN UPRIGHT POSITION Henry Znamirowski, Ellicott City, and William V. Fielder, Jr., Frederick, Md., assignors to Eastern Products Cor poration, Columbia, Md. Filed Oct. 20, 1969, Ser. No. 867,677 int. Cl. A47h 15104 u.S. Cl. 16-87.4 3 Claims 10 ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A carrier for a drapery hook havina an upper portion which engages the track of the drapery rod and having a lower portion terminating in a front wall, the wall beina. 15 in the form of a vertical trou,ah having,an upper edge so that when a hook is hung on the upper edge, the heel of the hook is supported by the trough to overcome the tendency toward forward toppling and thereby to maintain the heading of the drapery upright. 20 A style of drapery hook in common usage is of inverted U shape having an arched center with a drapery engagin@ le,@ on the front side terminating in a heel and a free leg 25 on the back side. In the carrier disclosed in the prior Lydard Patent 3,324,501, which issued June 13, 1967, the hook is supported at its central arch and a barrier is provided for en.@agin.@ the free leg of the hook to prevent the free le.- from swinging backwardly about the re.-ion of 30 support for the purpose of keeping the heading of the drapery upright. Such mode of support might be considered to be indirect since it asstimes that all of the books in a series are of the same shape and have the same spacin@ between the le.,s. Where the spacina between the legs 35 varies, the de,@ree of uprightness of the heading will also vary. It is the object of the present invention to provide a carrier for a drapery hook in which the le@ of the hook . 40 which supports the drapery heading is directly en.- a.@ing thus insuring that the drapery heading will be held upright in spite of variation in the shape of the hook. it is more specifically an object of the present invention to provide a carrier havin.- a front wall of vertical trou.-h shape for direct enga,@ement not only of the hook but also of the 45 drapery fabric so as to limit swiveling of the hook about a vertical axis and to keep the drapery faced forwardly at the region of attachment to the hook. it is a general object of the invention to provide a 50 carrier for a drapery hook which is inherently inexpensive, which may be produced as a simple piece of molded plastic, which is easily en.-a.-ed by a hook when the draperies are installed and easily removed when the drapery must be taken down for cleaning or the like, and which is 55 capable of accommodating hooks in a wide variety of shape and condition. Other objects and advantages of the invention will become apparent upon considering the attached detailed description and upon reference to the drawing in which: FIG. 1 is a view, in elevation, of a drapery hook carrier . 60 constructed in accordanr-e with the invention mounted on a rod and supporting a hook and drapery heading; FIG. 2 is a back view of the carrier shown in FIG. 1; FIG. 3 is a vertical section taken alon.- the line 3--3 in 6,5 FIG. 2; FIG. 4 is a top view of the carrier; and FIG. 5 shows the carrier as viewed from the bottom; TFIG. 6 is a fragmentary section showink an alternate construction. 70 While the invention has been described in connection with a preferred embodiment, it will be tinderstood that Patented Oct. 5, 1971 2 we clo not inteiid to be limited to the particular embodiment shown but intend on the contrary to cover the variotis alternative and equivalent constructions included within the spirit and scope of the invention. Referrin- now to the drawing and particularly to FIG. 1, a carrier@ 10 constructed in accordance with the invention is shown mounted in the track 11 of a drapery rod 12. The carrier supports a hook 13 of well known type having a free leg 14 and a front leg 15 or shank arranged generally parallel to one another with an arched center portion 16 in between. The shank is reversely bent at a heel 17 to form an upwardly extending sharpened pin 18. The pin is seated in a gathered portion of a drapery heading 20 formed along the upper edge of a drapery 21. Turning attention to the carrier, it is preferably formed of a single molded piece of plastic, for example, nylon, high density polyethylene, or any other molded plastic having similar characteristics of strength and durability. Th.- carrier has an upper portion 22 mounting a disc 23 having a neck 24 which is registered with the track 11 of the rod for free sliding movement. Extending forwardly and downwardly from portion 22, in dog leg shape, is an arm portion 30 having a pair of laterally spaced side walls 31, 32 (see FIGS. 4 and 5) and a vertically extending front wall 33. In accordance with the present invention, the drapery hook is supported on the upper edge of the front wall and the wall is formed of shallow trough-like cross section for directly engaging the heel of the hook to maintain the hook and drapery heading upright against any tendency to topple forwardly and for keeping the hook in vertical alinement with the carrier. Further in accordance with the invention, means are provided at the back of the front wall for substantially filling the space between the legs of the hook and for taking up lost motion to inhibit bodily rocking of the hook about the stipporting edge to insure that the heel of the hook is maintained in seated position in the trough. Thus it will be seen in FIG. 4 that the front wall 33 is in the form of a shallow vertical trough having lateral edges 34, 35 and a central valley 36 with an upper or supporting edge 37. To the rear of the edge 37 is a clearance opening 38 for admission of the free leg of the hook. Integrally formed on the back side of the front wall 33 is a protuberance, or a lug, 40 which projects out into engagement, or near engagement, with the free leg 14 of the hook when the hook is in seated position. The lug 40 preferably has a downwardly sloping surface 41 for guiding the tip of the leg 14 of the hook rearwardly into its final position when the hook is installed. The lug 40 moreover is of arcuate contour, when viewed from the top (FIG. 4), thereby conforming, to some extent, to the arcuate contour of the trough. This permits the hook to have a certain amount of angular freedom, as shown in FIG. 5, when supported on the edge 37 of the carrier. It should be noted, however, that it is one of the features of the present construction that the lateral edges 34, 35 of the trough engage the back side of the heading with equalized presstire, thus tendin- to keep the heading forwardly oriented at the region of attachment and not twisted with respect to the carrier. It will be apparent to one skilled in the art that the construction described above holds the drapery heading vertical by reason of direct engagement between the heel 17 of the front leg 15 of the hook in spite of a wide variation in hook configuration, due either to the preferences of various hook manufactures or due to the fact that the hook has been bent out of shape incident to usage. All hooks, however, have a supporting arch and a heel at the lower end of the front leg, and it is engagement at these two points which acbieves the desired uprightness in the present construction. The uprightness is not

3 affected by the fact that a -iven hook may be longer or shorter, the fact that a given hook may be of different specific shape or the fact that a given hook may be deformed by having its legs squeezed together or spread apart. Where the legs are too close together, the free or rear leg 14 will simply ride up upon the angled surface 41 until the hook is fully seated by reason of the weight of the drapery. Where the hook has been inadvertently spread apart, a small space may exist between the lug 40 and the rear leg 14 without in any way affecting the uprigbtness of the hook which has been established by engagement at points 16, 17. The construction is therefore to be distinguished from that disclosed in the earlier patent where uprightness is achieved indirectly by positioning the free leg of the hook and where bending of the free leg out of position may cause the heading to occupy an angled position forwardly or backwardly from the vertical. The present carrier is strong enotigh to support the heaviest of drapery materials, but it is nevertheless of light construction requiring a minimum of raw material. The strength is due to the box-like construction, utilizing extensive side walls and a front wall which is inherently rigid by reason of its trotigh shape. The arm portion of the carrier, in the region of the dog leg, is reinforced by a web 50 extendin.@ between the walls, and the upper portion is additionally reinforced by transversely extending webs 51. Webs 52, of circular contour, reinforce the device at the region of the track-engaging neck 24 which supports the retaining disc 23. Also while the front wall 33 is preferably longer than the shank 15 of the hook for engagement and support of the heel 17, it will be understood that if desired, the front wall 33 may be shortened and provided with a supporting surface which engages the shank of the hook at a regio-n spaced upwardly from the heel. Thus referring to FIG. 6, which shows a vertical section similar to that in FIG. 3, it will be noted that the hook is foreshortened or "trimmed" at the bottom and that an integral supporting surface 36a is provided which engages the shank at a region which is spaced substantially downwardly from the arch 16 but nevertheless upwardly from the heel 17. Otherwise, corresponding portions of the carrier are indicated by corresponding rcference numerals Nvith the addition of subscript a. It will be understood that the term "shank" as used herein includes all of that portion 15 of the hook which lies upwardly of the heel 17. Moreover, while the preferred construction in udes a continuous front wall 33, it will be understood skilled in the art that the wall 33 need not be co from top to bottom provided that there is a brid tion at the upper edge 37 for engaging the arch of the hook and provided that there is a bridging portion spaced below it for engaging the heel or shank of the hook, thereby to define a vertical hook position, nothwithstanding other minor variations in the configuration of hook and carrier. We